


Unexpected (not)

by KiraStain



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Feelings, Insecure Bucky Barnes, Insecure Tony, M/M, Time Travel, so many feelings, they're just made for each other right, young Bucky saves the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 13:38:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13571688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraStain/pseuds/KiraStain
Summary: When another of Tony's experiments goes wrong, a new (not) guest appears in the Tower.





	Unexpected (not)

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt for ITAB by dramaqueenofhell: Time travel! 40's Bucky comes to the present and Tony and post everything!Bucky has just come together. (If you can, a lot of jealous Bucky, (whichever)) please and thank you
> 
> a ton of thanks and love to [Bill_longbow](https://bill-longbow.tumblr.com/) for helping me and being such a wonderful and patient beta!

The first time James sees Bucky happens when the Tower alarms are set off and the sound of a blast coming from upstairs – from Tony’s lab – is still in James’ head. He runs to the stairs, because it’s safer and it’s faster. Please, not Tony, not now, please, please repeating in his head over and over again.

Not Tony, his Tony.

So, he – not him, no, but Bucky Barnes from the 4o’s, dressed in a just-received- new and clean uniform, just from the Stark Expo, is not among the most important things for the moment. And he’s no longer that guy, there’s nothing left of that lad from Brooklyn except the drawl coming out sometimes.

Not among the most important.

Fine, it kinda is, but the most important is Tony lying on the floor, half-shocked from the blast that destroyed half of the lab. James falls to his knees right next to him, heart drumming like crazy in his ears, checking Tony for injuries. The first look shows only scratches, small bruises, and a very, very intrigued Tony Stark.

James breathes out slowly, the tension on the line with the Soldier coming out leaving him, and only then does he look up and sees.

Bucky Barnes, obviously shocked and lost, but somehow keeping himself together in that obvious I’m-scared-but-I’m-keeping-cool manner that he would be using a fucking lot during the war, a small smile on his lips, eyes darting from one thing to another, trying to put all this together in his mind.

James sees though, how he-not-he is frightened, so much so that he doesn’t even recognize his future self. Not to blame him – long hair, murder look, a two-day stubble and a goddamn metal arm are not yet familiar, - yet that tells something, considering James Buchanan Barnes had a sniper’s eye long before he did become the Winter Soldier.

Bucky blinks, looking at him, then at Tony.

“You looked younger on the stage. Is that lighting?” He says, out of all things. Tony raises his eyebrow. Right, James thinks. Apparently, Bucky thinks that’s Howard Stark lying on the floor, not his already adult son. The highest possible option. Funny how the idea of time-travel has become easy and much more plausible than before. Ever since he came to this age and joined the Avengers, and started dating brilliant, genius, but not without a mad scientist vibe, Tony Stark.

“Aw, Buckaroo,” Tony smirks, still looking only at Bucky, and holy fuck but James knows this look, and he isn’t used to this look going to anyone but him.

That’s the moment when Steve bursts into the workshop and stumbles over nothing, eyes locked on the person he never saw since the war.

“Bucky?”

Bucky averts his gaze, freezes, and again, out of all things happening, fucking Captain America is the thing that makes Bucky’s jaw drop.

“Stevie?”

*

Steve becomes the one to give an explanation and Bucky believes him – of course he believes him. Always, ‘till the end of the line. Steve can’t hide how happy he is to see him in return, and James feels a stab in his gut every time he sees them together. He knows how tough it is for Steve to see who his best friend has become. James… has changed a lot, not in a way Steve could digest easily, and same thing goes

for James. So they give each other some space, getting to know each other one step at a time. It’s hard, especially when James started developing feelings for Tony. Tony and Steve are still having a tough time putting all the shit behind them. But still, James and Steve have been trying, rather successfully, but now…

For the last 24 hours Steve hasn’t even looked at him – him-him – but followed Bucky everywhere. James understands, really – there’s a lot to catch up on for the guy. He’s okay with that. Well, he tries.

It would’ve been easier, if Tony wasn’t caught up with the half-destroyed lab and a project gone sideways. All they’ve managed is a quick reassuring talk and a kiss.

And now James finds himself in the kitchen, out of sight but just within earshot, while the three of them are sitting at the dining table.

Steve hasn’t told Bucky about his future. He just briefly introduced him-him, and then Tony came to the rescue and nudged the talk in the directions they wanted to avoid the topic of how that gorgeous guy with an easy attitude has become the broody guy with a murder strut.

“So, you need to repair that thing to bring me back?” Bucky asks. “Will it be the same for my time? Cause I left a pretty lady alone there and tomorrow – well, my tomorrow – I have to be on a ship to Europe and everything?”

“Not even a second will pass, believe me,” Tony says in a tone that, again, is too familiar to James. He takes a deep breath not to let himself feel how something tightens up inside him, sharp and painful. “I just need… some time to figure out what happened and how to get you back and not in the Bronze Age or something. And how my project managed to become a time machine in the first place, or if it even is my project that’s to blame, so… yeah, a couple of days, a week maybe. Hard to say.”

Well, that is strange. James raises his eyes from his StarkPad to look at Tony and see how he and Steve exchange looks. And not just any looks.  They are up to something and James isn’t aware of what exactly, neither is Bucky.

James has a hunch that he won’t like their thoughts.

*

“Are you fucking serious right now?”

“James, wait…”

“No, you wait and think for a second! Have you thought for even a second about what you want to do?!” James hears how he loses control over his voice, pain and hurt and fear and anger bursting in him like a goddamn volcano.

“Bucky…” Steve follows, coming a step closer and freezing under James’ glare.

“And why am I the only one to think of the consequences of this?! Shouldn’t it be like in all those goddamn sci-fi novels – don’t mess with time?!”

“I KNOW!” Tony yells, breathing heavily. James stares at him. Tony’s hands are shaking, his eyes are full of emotions, so painful that it hurts just to look at him.

“I fucking know! I know about the butterfly effect, I know, I ask goddamn Stephen motherfucking Strange to look in the history of the dimension with such situation, I ran the possibilities and I know. What happens if we tell him, what happens if we keep him safe here, if we return him to a moment when he – you – would not fall off the train.”

Tony suddenly falls on the couch like a potato sack, burying his face in his hands, his voice now muffled.  

“And in a number of cases, there is a great possibility that you wouldn’t be taken by Hydra. A good, very good chance to save you.”

“But what are the consequences besides that?” James asks softly and sits beside him. “What would happen to the world? To Steve?” He doesn’t try to touch Tony, stopping his hand just a few inches from his shoulder, and continues softly. “To you? To us?”

They’ve just begun, he and Tony, all their small victories on the path to each other, all the failures, fights and long, peaceful, happy evenings together, their first dates, all the memories about them are worth so much to James. Everything about Tony in his life is like fresh, cold water after years, decades in a desert, everything after the Void he lived in for seventy years under Hydra’s control. Al this has led to Tony.

“To me?”

Tony doesn’t speak and that’s answer enough for James.

“Either if you – you from that time – stay here or if Tony gets you in some other time moment, as Doctor Strange said, there are two possibilities: either you stay like you are and any our choice creates a different universe or something like that, which is more likely to happen,” Steve interjects.

“And the other one?” James swallows. His gut feeling never  fails him.

“That the Winter Soldier,” (me, James’ mind provides, it’s me, say it if you’re saying this you jerk.) “The Winter Soldier disappears completely. There won’t be a Bucky Barnes caught by Hydra, so there’ll be just Bucky Barnes who lives his life without years of torture.”

Without the torture, James finishes, without the serum. A normal life of just a guy who was born in 1917 and died before the 21st century begins. No pain, no war, no endless list with names of people he killed. Maybe a family. A kid or two. A small house with a white fence around it, just how he dreamed when he was young.

And maybe it won’t be him who gets his life. Maybe he would just… disappear. But that guy with a wide, easy smile and with fire still in his eyes could.

Tony stands up from the couch and quickly leaves the living room.

A happy life. But not with Tony, James thinks.

Is that as easy for Tony to do, as it is hard for James to even think about?

*

Bucky becomes the center of attention of all the Avengers, not without a reason.

He is charming, easy to talk to, he is curious about the future and catches up with it easily, learning how to use most of the tech in two days, when Steve needed at least a month for that as he admits. Bucky laughs, and you can’t help but at least smile back.

Tony avoids James and locks himself up in his workshop barring access to anyone, hiding behind “I need to repair this thing and get Bucky back, okay?”

James can’t look at his not-broken self anymore, feeling his every scar and crack and bruise, and goes to the gym.

He needs to think.

Why does he have to stay here if no one wants a guy with such a burden and a blood trail?

If even the one who confessed his love to him, the one who made all his life… liveable wants him to become who he wasn’t since he fell. There’s not much to think about.

 

*

 

He doesn’t lose the count of time – he can’t anymore, the need to keep every second in mind has been burnt into his skull – but he got into some kind of meditation, punching the bag that’s enforced to be able to hold against the strength of a supersoldier.

Punch, punch, punch. To not think, not fear, not be angry, to keep his mind clear. Only one task, only one thing to do.

That’s easy. Much easier than living. Another thought that he’s so scared of. A plain list, just a toy soldier on the board to play with, no personality, just the abilities to move and comply and be just an asset…

No. No thoughts.

So, he doesn’t know when the door opened and he – no, not him – the other Bucky came into the gym, already in some pants and a shirt, clearly taken from Steve. Bucky’s smiling, still honestly, but now it was a but strained.

“Mind if I join?” Bucky obviously tries to look nonchalant, but James knows better. There’s a strain around his eyes too. “Maybe you could show me a trick or two before I go back?”

James didn’t know that they wouldn’t let him. They didn’t even tell him. James cringes on the inside and invites Bucky with a silent gesture.

“Not much of a talker, are we now?” Bucky asks, but follows, getting on the mat in front of him.

It still feels strange, to see himself from the past, to see someone look exactly like himself. He never had a twin, or even a brother, just sisters who all have been dead for years now. To look at a man and to know that it iss himself?

Moreover, he needs to remember that this Bucky is not broken, he has no serum.

He has trained before though, with different soldiers, serum or not. He remembers how to do it.

Bucky is a quick learner, just like James was. One of the skills that Hydra liked, not to waste too much time on preparing. And he knows himself, how he has fought, knows his strengths and weaknesses. James almost likes what they are doing.

Not to think of anything.

When James sees that Bucky is barely standing, he stops and throws him a bottle of water from the fridge. Bucky catches it easily and empties half the bottle at once.

“So,” he asks after. “what are you planning to do with me?”

James gapes at him.

“Oh, please,” Bucky smirks. “Don’t think of me – of us – as an idiot. We both know Steve. And Tony – gosh, I’d be a lucky son of a bitch, that ass, the future is great, did you even remember how hard it was to hide back then? I do hope it would be easier at war. Anyway, Tony is no better than Steve.”

Bucky sits on a bench next to the wall, obviously enjoying the shocked look on his other self. “They don’t want me to go back. That’s why you’re so pissed, right?”

James doesn’t answer. No reason to, as it seemed.

“Don’t think they would do this if you tell them not to, though.” Bucky shrugs. “Both love you too much, you idiot. We idiot? Gosh, it’s weird.”

“Doesn’t look like that to me,” James says finally, opening the other bottle. “They were pretty easy to choose this to get rid of me.”

“Idiot.”

“You think otherwise?”

“Tony is ready to let you go just so you could have a life!” Bucky exclaims and rubs his forehead. “Am I really that stubborn? I see now how we were able to survive Stevie.”

“Like you know better.” James scowls.

“I do, actually.” Bucky raises an eyebrow. “Because, apparently, I’m the only adult here, so I went and used my mouth to speak with Tony.”

“And he told you that?”

“He did.” Bucky sighs and looks at him. “Listen, I don’t know what happened to you and what is going to to me, but according to your grumpy and creepy look, nothing good. And don’t think that I want to go there, you know best I don’t, but hey, I don’t want to feel like I killed you, and it would certainly feel like that. And come on, this time is great, it’s the fucking future, pal, with spaceships and aliens and technology we couldn’t even think of back then! We can have sex with whoever we want to, travel, eat not that crap like we had to most of the time. We date the hottest guy I’ve ever met, so how could I take all that from you? From me?”

James gapes at him again. Bucky actually laughs.

“And come on, imagine Stevie there without us. What trouble he would get himself into?”

“Hell of a lot,” James mumbles.

“Indeed.” Bucky’s smile is a bit strained, still. “And don’t think that I want to go there.” James closes his eyes.

“We can have a great time here after all, can’t we?”

 

*

 

Tony doesn’t even protest and lets him in after just one request, which is a good sign. He doesn’t have such luxury often, when Tony decides to hide here from the rest of the world.

James can’t help his smile at the look of Tony in one of his dumb rock band t-shirts, hair pointing in every direction like he’d just woke up, and three – four empty cups of coffee and the fifth one, still half-filled.

If only he didn’t look like a kitten waiting to be kicked.

“I think I owe you an apology,” James says, without prolonging the dangerous moment, a small smile on his lips.

Tony blinks, obviously surprised. “What?”

“You heard it.” James takes one step closer, then another, and kneels before him so Tony didn’t have to look up at him. “I was scared. I was jealous. I was unprepared to see me.. not broken me, with two arms, without serum, and without fucking Hydra’s brainwashing. The one everybody liked more than, well, myself. And then you tell me you want to keep him here with a possibility of me just disappearing?”

Tony’s eyes opened wide, scared. “Oh honey,” he breathes out quietly and takes Bucky’s hands in his, squeezing slightly. “I wanted for you to be happy, that’s all I wanted. To save you from all that shit.”

“Even if you won’t be able to see me anymore?” James tried, he really tried, but he can’t help it, still hurt, illogically, yes.

Tony holds his breath, his shoulders tight. “If you want a normal life, I can’t be a part of it anyway. At any time.”

“But I want a life with  _you_.” James cups Tony’s face with his hands. “Maybe I wanted this back then in that life, that other life, but now? I want this. I want this time, I want you, and I tried so hard, for so long, to be able to live here, I can’t just forget it. And I don’t want to disappear.” He wanted it before, the first couple of months, when every night was a hell, drowning him in memories and nightmares. Not anymore.

Tony smiles, so breakable, like he thinks he’s not allowed to. “You were already quite smart at that time, you know? Much more than myself at that age.”

“No one could be smarter than you, dollface.”

“Well. True. But you were wiser.”

*

“So. This is it?” Bucky looks at the arch of the portal. “Never thought I’d see a time machine in my life. Shame I can’t tell anyone.”

“You can try.” Steve smiles. “You always loved science fiction and I remember how you could discuss it for hours. No one would believe you anyway.”

“Punk.” Bucky huffs and hugs Steve tightly. “Until we meet in Europe, right?”

Steve swallows, but nods, and hugs Bucky a bit longer. Then Bucky turns to Tony.

“And I’m so looking forward to the future.” He all but purrs, turning his I’m-handsome-and-adorable mode full on.

“Don’t flirt with my boyfriend.” James scowls.

“He’s our boyfriend!” Bucky protests, and Tony laughs.

“Oh, now I have an image to think about.”

“No.”

“Oh yes.”

James rolls his eyes. Bucky hums and walks to him. “So. Do we shake hands? I know it’s still weird but hey, who else can say…”

James takes him in a hug and Bucky’s voice trails off immediately. “Be safe,” James says quietly. “My ass is still depended on you.”

“I should make a tattoo or something, to surprise you after all.”

“Hell, you won’t.”

“Hell, I will.”

If there is a tightness in his throat, James can keep it from his voice.

Tony turns the portal on, and with a low hum, a blue and green vortex appears in the metal arch. Bucky doesn’t wait for long and goes straight to the portal.

James never liked long goodbyes, after all.

*

The only thing James does regret after is that he hasn’t punched Bucky hard enough, when Tony starts laughing hard between James’ thighs instead of taking his cock into his mouth.

On James’ right inner thigh there is a tattoo of an arrow, pointing in the direction of his dick, and next to it, with small letters “For Tony, with love”

 


End file.
